Prufrock: Geoghegan — no longer a fat cat

The former HSBC chief executive has shed 20 kilos as he prepares to run the New York marathon in November — and to win a bet

Former HSBC chief executive Geoghegan has lost weight to win a bet (Ben Stansall)

Michael Geoghegan isn’t half the banker he used to be. Well, at least 20 kilos
less of one.

When he quit as HSBC chief executive last year he took a bet of HK$1m
(£80,000) with a Hong Kong industrialist that he couldn’t shed his fat cat
flab in time for the New York marathon in November.

“It has been like running a marathon every day for eight months,” wailed a 79
kilos Geoghegan, 57, from his Barbados home.

Let’s hope the training was a little easier — and less timeconsuming — than
his experience of the real thing. In 2006, Geoghegan ran the London
marathon. It took him — wait for it — six hours and one minute. Confronted
about this snail-like progress, he spluttered something about no training
and getting off a plane that morning ... but still.

This time he took a sensible approach to training with a run in the morning, a